Last year, my sister gave me a kitchen scale for my birthday. I had no idea how helpful it would be for other things, but I knew it would be helpful for some of my bread and other recipes.
I purchase a lot of food in bulk, particularly staples like pasta. A lot of recipes call for 1 pound of pasta. Well, it’s difficult to determine how much a pound of pasta is when you buy in bulk. The cup measurement for one pound of macaroni noodles is different from that of one pound of penne pasta, which is different from that of one pound of egg noodles.
I can now easily calculate how much one pound of pasta is. So, thanks Flo I love my kitchen scale.
One pound of fusilli pasta equals six cups, one pound of penne pasta equals four and a half cups, and one pound of macaroni noodles equals three cups.
More pasta cooking considerations
When specificity is not a major concern and a little bit less or more is acceptable, those averages are helpful. There are a few more things to take into account, though, if you want a more precise forecast. How the process plumps your final product will also depend on the kind of pasta you use. In contrast, whole wheat or gluten-free options won’t absorb as much water and will only slightly swell when they come out of the pot. Semolina, a type of hard wheat that is frequently used in commercial dry pastas, can come out of the pot twice the size it went in. In those circumstances, it will be easier to gauge how much pasta will be in your bowl by using the pasta in its dry state.
It’s also beneficial to commit to memory, or have readily available in your recipe notebook, the typical yield for your favorite varieties if you’re depending on volume. For instance, when cooked, ⅔ cup of dry penne will yield approximately 1¼ cups, and if you gather the spaghetti strands into a bunch the size of a quarter, you will probably get about a cup of cooked pasta. Like most cooking, there will inevitably be some trial and error.
